Pharmacological and phytochemical studies of ayuvedic plants for anti-obesity and anti-diabetic activity

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Multifunctional cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific CD8(+) T cells are not restricted by telomere-related senescence in young or old adults

"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Riddell, N. E., Griffiths, S. J., Rivino, L., King, D. C. B., Teo, G. H., Henson, S. M., Cantisan, S., Solana, R., Kemeny, D. M., MacAry, P. A., Larbi, A. and Akbar, A. N. (2015), Multifunctional cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific CD8+ T cells are not restricted by telomere-related senescence in young or old adults. Immunology, 144: 549–560 which has been published in final form at doi:10.1111/imm.12409. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.This study was supported by the BBRSC (ANA, NER andSMH) and MRC (SG)

Nutrition, diet and immunosenescence

Ageing is characterized by immunosenescence and the progressive decline in immunity in association with an increased frequency of infections and chronic disease. This complex process affects both the innate and adaptive immune systems with a progressive decline in most immune cell populations and defects in activation resulting in loss of function. Although host genetics and environmental factors, such as stress, exercise and diet can impact on the onset or course of immunosenescence, the mechanisms involved are largely unknown. This review focusses on identifying the most significant aspects of immunosenescence and on the evidence that nutritional intervention might delay this process, and consequently improve the quality of life of the elderly

ReGAE 5: Can we improve the surgical journey for African-Caribbean patients undergoing glaucoma filtration surgery? Some preliminary findings

Vinette Cross, Peter Shah, Martin Glynn, Shivani ChidrawarCentre for Health and Social Care Improvement, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United KingdomAim: To explore the experiences of African-Caribbean patients who had undergone filtration surgery for advanced glaucoma.Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used to collect the data and an interview guide was developed. Participants recounted when they first became aware of a problem with their eyes and their feelings at the time. Subsequently they were probed about their subjective experiences of becoming a glaucoma patient, receiving treatment, the decision to undergo surgery, and its aftermath. The perceptions of three participants from three different generations of African-Caribbean men were selected from the larger study for presentation in this paper. Interview transcripts were subjected to narrative analysis.Results: The concept of patient-partnership was re-framed in terms of mentorship. Surgeon–patient relationships are central to developing effective coping strategies. Support to face the ordeals ahead, challenge to take on new responsibilities, and help to envision a meaningful life with glaucoma are fundamental to fostering trust and maintaining motivation to continue.Conclusions: The use of patient narratives provides a valuable a resource for enhancing communication skills and patient-centered care in the hospital eye service.Keywords: glaucoma, secondary eye-care, African-Caribbean, filtration surgery, trabeculectom

Cytomegalovirus infection does not impact on survival or time to first treatment in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a widely prevalent herpes virus which establishes a state of chronic infection. The establishment of CMV‐specific immunity controls viral reactivation and leads to the accumulation of very large numbers of virus‐specific T cells which come to dominate the immune repertoire. There is concern that this may reduce the immune response to heterologous infections and HCMV infection has been associated with reduced survival in elderly people. Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B‐CLL) suffer from a state of immune suppression but have a paradoxical increase in the magnitude of the CMV‐specific T cell and humoral immune response. As such, there is now considerable interest in how CMV infection impacts on the clinical outcome of patients with B‐CLL. Utilizing a large prospective cohort of patients with B‐CLL (n = 347) we evaluated the relationship between HCMV seropositivity and patient outcome. HCMV seropositive patients had significantly worse overall survival than HCMV negative patients in univariate analysis (HR = 2.28, 95% CI: 1.34–3.88; P = 0.002). However, CMV seropositive patients were 4 years older than seronegative donors and this survival difference was lost in multivariate modeling adjusted for age and other validated prognostic markers (P = 0.34). No significant difference was found in multivariate modeling between HCMV positive and negative patients in relation to the time to first treatment (HR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.68–1.84; P = 0.65). These findings in a second independent cohort of 236 B‐CLL patients were validated. In conclusion no evidence that HCMV impacts on the clinical outcome of patients with B‐CLL was found. Am. J. Hematol. 91:776–781, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Peripheral blood T-cell signatures from high-resolution immune phenotyping of γδ and αβ T-cells in younger and older subjects in the Berlin Aging Study II

Background Aging and latent infection with Cytomegalovirus (CMV) are thought to be major factors driving the immune system towards immunosenescence, primarily characterized by reduced amounts of naïve T-cells and increased memory T-cells, potentially associated with higher morbidity and mortality. The composition of both major compartments, γδ as well as αβ T-cells, is altered by age and CMV, but detailed knowledge of changes to the γδ subset is currently limited. Results Here, we have surveyed a population of 73 younger (23–35 years) and 144 older (62–85 years) individuals drawn from the Berlin Aging Study II, investigating the distribution of detailed differentiation phenotypes of both γδ and αβ T-cells. Correlation of frequencies and absolute counts of the identified phenotypes with age and the presence of CMV revealed a lower abundance of Vδ2-positive and a higher amount of Vδ1-positive cells. We found higher frequencies of late-differentiated and lower frequencies of early-differentiated cells in the Vδ1+ and Vδ1-Vδ2-, but not in the Vδ2+ populations in elderly CMV-seropositive individuals confirming the association of these Vδ2-negative cells with CMV-immunosurveillance. We identified the highest Vδ1:Vδ2 ratios in the CMV-seropositive elderly. The observed increased CD4:CD8 ratios in the elderly were significantly lower in CMV-seropositive individuals, who also possessed a lower naïve and a larger late-differentiated compartment of CD8+ αβ T-cells, reflecting the consensus in the literature. Conclusions Our findings illustrate in detail the strong influence of CMV on the abundance and differentiation pattern of γδ T-cells as well as αβ T-cells in older and younger people. Mechanisms responsible for the phenotypic alterations in the γδ T-cell compartment, associated both with the presence of CMV and with age require further clarification

Prediction of Conflicts in Transportation Services using Real-Time Data

Smart-cities are intended to provide the comfort and satisfaction of the citizens belonging to it. There has been so many advances in the Smart-cities but still some con?icts a?ect the smart-ness of the smart- city. The problem of traffic jams in Public Transportation Services like Bus, Trains, Tubes(Metros) due to various unpredictable Realtime con?icts resulting the overall satisfaction of the user. Also, the three parallel services being independent to one another have no communication because of their distinct nature. To overcome such con?icts this paper detects and defines the key issues in smart- city public transport systems. In fact the paper is focussing on the con?icts that arise among the public transport services with three distinct providers. To monitor these services working in smart-cities, a Watch-dog architecture has been used. The Watch-dog Architecture works on detection the con?icts and returns it to the admin user to take proper decision. The Realtime data aggregated from all the three services is integrated and processed to re?ect the Runtime con?icts arising in the public transport services. This Watchdog Architecture re?ects the result in percentage by focussing on a area where all the three services integrate to result a con?ict

Effect of CMV and Aging on the Differential Expression of CD300a, CD161, T-bet, and Eomes on NK Cell Subsets

Natural killer cells are innate lymphoid cells involved in the defence against virus-infected cells and tumour cells. NK cell phenotype and function is affected with age and CMV latent infection. Aging affects the frequency and phenotype of NK cells and CMV infection also contributes to these alterations. Thus, a reduction of CD56bright NK cell subpopulation associated with age and an expansion of memory-like NK cells CD56dimCD57+NKG2C+ probably related to CMV-seropositivity have been described. NK cells express T-bet and Eomes transcription factors that are necessary for the development of NK cells. Here we analyse the effect of age and CMV-seropositivity on the expression of CD300a and CD161 inhibitory receptors and T-bet and Eomes transcription factors in NK cell subsets defined by the expression of CD56 and CD57. CD300a is expressed by the majority of NK cells. CD56bright NK cells express higher levels of CD300a than CD56dim NK cells. An increase in the expression of CD300a was associated with age whereas a decreased expression of CD161 in CD56dim NK cells was associated with CMV-seropositivity. In CD56dim NK cells an increased percentage of CD57+CD300a+ and a reduction in the percentage of CD161+CD300a+ cells were found to be associated with CMV-seropositivity. Regarding T-bet and Eomes transcription factors, CMV-seropositivity was associated with a decrease of T-bethi in CD56dimCD57+ NK cells from young individuals whereas Eomes expression was increased with CMV-seropositivity in both CD56bright and CD56dimCD57+/− (from middle-age and young individuals, respectively) and was decreased with ageing in all NK subsets from the three group of age. In conclusion, CMV infection and age induce significant changes in the expression of CD300a and CD161 in NK cell subsets defined by the expression of CD56 and CD57. T-bet and Eomes are differentially expressed on NK cell subsets and their expression is affected by CMV latent infection and ageing